Chekika: A little-known Everglades access point

January 1, 9:46 PMMiami Travel ExaminerGeorge Leposky

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Picnic area at Chekika
© George Leposky

Winter is the time of year to explore Chekika, a little-known access point to Everglades National Park.

The National Park Service explains that “Chekika is open seasonally due to a tendency to flood during the wet season.”  That’s an understatement. Except from December through April, most of the area in and around the 640-acre Chekika site is under several inches to several feet of water.  Even during the dry months, you may find the River of Grass lapping over the edges of Chekika’s parking lot.

Located on the remote western edge of the Redland agricultural area, Chekika is a free day-use area open only from dawn to dusk. It has a picnic area with a lawn, tables, and several shelters shaded by tall tropical hardwood trees. This patch of higher and drier ground is known as a hammock, or tree island. The park rangers provide portable restrooms and drinking water, but you can’t buy food there. Bring your own.
 

The capped artesian well at
Chekika © George Leposky

At Chekika, you can hike a short trail along a boardwalk and around a pond where fish jump and large alligators lurk. The boardwalk crosses a sawgrass wetland and then climbs onto the hammock. You can see about 100 species of birds in the immediate Chekika area.

Also, you can bring your bicycle and use the parking lot as a jumping-off point to pedal along the paved roads and canal banks in the park’s East Everglades section. If you cycle for any length of time, carry drinking water and use sunscreen. Even in winter, the sun in the Everglades is strong; its rays can dehydrate and burn you.

Historic location

Chekika is named for a famous Seminole Indian chieftain. At a similar hammock about 10 miles away, Chief Chekika’s warriors staged their notorious 1840 raid on the Indian Key settlement in the Florida Keys. A victim of the raid was Dr. Henry Perrine, a prominent physician who had served as U.S. Consul in Campeche, Mexico. At the time of his death, he was promoting the introduction and cultivation of tropical plants in southern Florida.

Fish and alligators dwell in
Chekika’s pond © George Leposky

After the Seminoles’ Indian Key raid, Lt. Colonel William Selby Harney (for whom the Harney River in the Everglades is named) led troops from Ft. Dallas (located near the mouth of the Miami River) to attack Chief Chekika’s stronghold, kill him, and hang his body from a tree as a warning to other Indians.

The present-day Chekika hammock was developed in the 1940s as a private resort, Grossman Hammock Mineral Springs. While prospecting for oil, wildcatters Mark Grossman and Mack MacCord struck a sulphur spring there, creating an artesian well.  Grossman built a lake into which the water flowed, attracting bathers who believed the mineral spring had healing powers. He also built the picnic area and a campground.
 

Swamp lilies with wet feet in the
sawgrass prairie © George Leposky

In 1970, Grossman retired and sold the property to the state, which operated it as Chekika State Recreation Area. In the 1980s, the artesian well was capped because the sulphur was polluting the water downstream. The state installed pumps to fill the lake with non-sulphurous water.

Chekika became part of Everglades National Park in 1991 as a result of the 1989 Everglades Expansion Act, which transferred 44,000 acres of state-owned lands in the Everglades to the National Park Service. 
 

Egrets soaring over the Everglades’
River of Grass © George Leposky

Directions to Chekika

Chekika is at 24200 SW 160th St., phone 305-251-0371‎.  It’s about 36 miles from downtown Miami and 18 miles from Homestead, Florida. To get there, take the Dolphin Expressway (State Road 836) to the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826) or the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike. Exit the Palmetto or the Turnpike at Kendall Drive (SW 88th Street), and go west to Krome Avenue (SW 177th Avenue). Turn left and go south about five miles to SW 168th Street. Turn right and go west about six miles to 237th Avenue. Turn right and go north about a mile. Turn left on 160th Street, and you’ll be facing west with the entrance to Chekika just ahead.

From the south, take the Turnpike to Eureka Drive (SW 184th Street), go west to Krome Avenue, and turn north to SW 168th Street – or take Krome Avenue due north from Homestead to SW 168th Street. Then follow the directions above.

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